Hi everyone!
The Next Fest has come to a close, and with that also one of the best and most overwhelming weeks of our studio. We couldn't have prepared for the amount of players and amazing feedback we've gotten over the past week, and I'm grateful for all of you who left feedback, played, or even just wishlisted the game.
Now, the question is, what's next for us? Well, it's back to the development mines for us so we can hit our late April release date.
Addressing your feedback
Whilst you clearly enjoyed the game, that doesn't mean it doesn't have some flaws, and we'd like to address those. There were a few common pieces of feedback we kept on getting:
Gnorman will get a disable option: I hear you, part of Clippy's charm was it's uselessness, but if you're playing for hours on end, you just want to strangle that gnome.
More automation: Whilst the debugger may be a neat mechanic, after a while it gets tedious. We'll be adding a lot more automation for the game, so that as you progress, you don't keep finding yourself doing the same things over and over again. We'll also apply this to other aspects outside of the debugger.
The skill tree will be completely reworked: The current skilltree felt kind of illogical/unbalanced, because it was just me throwing a bunch of things together, coming up with a number for cost and going "yup, that'll do it". This is of course not peak game design, and we're working on a new, much, much larger skilltree for the full game, that has more of a progression system built in.
Reworking the game's pacing: Right now, most of the excitement is right when you release a game, after which you're just fighting a losing battle against seeing your revenue/second drop. This isn't great, and with all of your feedback we have a bunch of ideas on keeping the excitement going throughout your game's release cycles.
More clear sequel development: We hear you, data is an important part of progression, and you have no idea how you actually get it, and how to get as much as possible. We'll be reworking our formulas, and provide you with an upfront estimation of how much data you'll get, before you actually announce your sequel.
And much more: This is not an exhaustive list of everything we want to fix/add. We're planning some more late game progression, QoL improvements and much more.
Demo updates?
The demo will remain in its current state for a while, we're currently doing some big code refactoring behind the scenes, which would break existing demo saves, and want to focus on getting the full game ready on time for its late April release.
Whilst not perfect, I believe that for now the demo is in a more than acceptable state to see if someone vibes with the game idea.
However, that doesn't mean we won't update the demo at all. Alongside with the full game's release in late April, we will also be releasing a completely reworked demo, coming middle of April. This demo will get the same amount of polish as the full game, but with a dedicated skill tree and altered pacing to make you experience the game as well.
Please note that because of this, demo saves will not be compatible with the full game.
We are also planning on leaving the game's demo up after the full game has come out, because that's just what we prefer as gamers as well.
Stay in touch
If you want to keep in the loop, or just send us more thoughts, there's a few ways you can do so.
Steam Discussions: I read all of these and will respond in <24 hours.
Discord: We have dedicated channels for MMO98
Email: Anything else you want to contact us for? You can send us an email at [email protected]
Other than that, a wishlist is the best way to stay informed when the full game comes out in ~7 weeks.
That's all I had to say, once again, thank you everyone for your overwhelming support. When we went into the Next Fest we were hoping for 1,000-2,000 wishlists, so seeing this reception really means a lot to me.
-Marnix